Page:Prehistoric Times.djvu/80

66 founded in 600 B.C.; Carthage in 800 B.C.; and Utica, according to Strabo and Pliny, about 300 years earlier; and, as we shall see, the Bronze Age commenced long before these dates.

Nor is there any sufficient evidence that bronze was introduced by a new superior or conquering race, which disposed, or destroyed, the previous neolithic inhabitants. It would seem, therefore, that the knowledge of bronze was introduced from the East, and gradually made its way over Europe.

A circumstance which strongly militates against the theory of a gradual and independent development of metallurgical knowledge in different countries, is the fact which, though perhaps somewhat too strongly stated by Mr Wright, is substantially correct, that whenever we find the bronze swords or celts, "whether in Ireland, in the far west, in Scotland, in distant Scandinavia, in Germany, or still further east in the Sclavonic countries, they are the same, not similar in character, but identical." The great resemblance to each other of stone implements found in different parts of the world may be satisfactorily accounted for by the similarity of the material, and the simplicity of the forms. But this argument cannot be applied to the bronze arms and implements. Though there are certain differences, yet several varieties of celts found throughout Europe, as well as some of the swords, knives, daggers, etc., are so similar that they seem as if they must have been cast by the same maker. Compare, for instance, figs. 4, 6, and 13, which represent Irish celts, with 14, 15, and 16, which are copied from Danish specimens; the three swords, figs. 26, 27, and 28, which come respectively from Ireland, Sweden, and Switzerland, and the two, figs. 29 and 30, of which the first is Swiss, the second Scandinavian. It would have been easy to multiply examples of this similarity, and it is not going too far to say that these resemblances cannot be the result of accident. On the other hand, it must be admitted that each country has certain minor peculiarities. Neither the form nor the ornaments are exactly similar.